The Most Valuable Gold CPUs and Where To Find Them

Computer processing units, or CPUs (also simply called processors) are one of the most common electronics items you’ll come across while recycling computers. These small items can also be worth quite a bit of money, especially if you find CPUs that have a lot of gold in them.

There are many different types of CPUs made of different materials. Each of these different types will of course have a different value. In this article, we’ll break down the CPUs that are generally considered the most valuable, mostly due to their gold content. We’ll also show you where you can find these valuable CPUs so you can be on the lookout! As always, prices change rapidly and vary from scrap buyer to scrap buyer. Therefore, the following CPUs aren’t necessarily in order from most to least valuable.

Gold Cap / Gold Leg 8086 IC Chips

These CPUs have both gold plate or caps and gold legs, so they contain a high overall amount of gold. These chips were included in many computers and other electronic items manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s. By the late 1980s, many manufacturers switched to more cost effective ways to make CPUs, so you won’t find these in computers from the 1990s and newer.

386/486 Gold Cap Processors

These processors are two different generations of ceramic gold cap CPUs. They generally have 68 pins and were manufactured by many different companies. In order to find these valuable gold processors, look in computers and electronics manufactured in the early or mid 1990s. Most manufacturers stopped using these processors by the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Motorola Gold Top Or Bottom CPUs

Motorola began manufacturing this processor, with its gold top or bottom, in the mid 1980s. The processor was used in computers like the Apple Macintosh II and Macintosh LC computers, Sun 3 workstations, and the HP 8711.

Pentium Pro Gold Cap Processors

The Intel Pentium Pro CPU is one of the more common gold CPUs you will find. It is a larger processor with many gold plated pins and gold heat spreading cap. Gold refining yields from this processor are said to be up to .33 grams per processor. This CPU was manufactured in the mid 1990s. To find these valuable CPUs, look in computer towers from the mid 1990s.

These four processors above are generally considered the most valuable to electronic scrappers and ewaste enthusiasts because of their high gold content. The general rule for scrapping electronics is that computers and other electronic items manufactured before the early 1990s have the most gold parts. When looking for CPUs to scrap, this rule holds true as these three valuable CPUs usually come out of electronics made before the mid 1990s.

If you have any questions about the scrap processors you wish to sell or how to classify other types of processors not listed in this article, please feel free to contact us at any time.